Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Post in which I talk about family drama

Question for my fellow atheists regarding young siblings or nieces/nephews.

OK so as I'm sure pretty much every regular here knows I am an atheist, an atheist from a Christian family.

So far that's been an OK situation. In fact, it's improved a bit as my family as a whole seems to have become more accepting of my fiance and I's atheism.

Recently I learned my youngest sister is pregnant and that I'll be an uncle sometime next year. I'm excited by this news and can't wait to be an uncle but there is a situation that I am almost positive will come up and I am unsure how to deal with it.

Given that my entire family is religious save for myself, I am positive my future niece or nephew will be brought up in Christianity. Since they will be brought up in it from birth I'm sure they will adhere to it, at least for their childhood if not for much longer.

The issue is, I know eventually they will ask whether I or my fiance believe in God. Both her and I are rather certain in our disbelief but I'm unsure how to explain this to them if they are young. I don't want them suddenly thinking their uncle Andy and aunt Dawn are bad people or something.

Have any of you experienced something similar? If so, how did you handle it? I'm not talking about pushing the kid towards disbelief, that's not my place. However, I feel it would be wrong to lie and claim I believe in God, so I know I'm going to have to at least try and attempt to explain why neither of us do.---Just remember I will always love you, even as I tear your ****ing throat away.

Also, isn't your youngest sister still in high school? Can't wait to see her on MTV. Anyway, I'm pretty sure children don't concern themselves with things regarding God anyway, so any question they ask certainly isn't going to mean much to them the next day. Just don't lie to the kid, and I can guarantee (not literally, obviously, but you get the idea) that the only way they'll think uncle Andy is bad is if their parents tell them so.

From: Juiceman_Shado | #006
So you're just going to ignore the rest of that post? Come on, I was kidding...
I love how this is your response everytime someone get's bothered at your complete and utter inability to act like a civil human being. Do you have social interaction problems Shado? Because you seem completely unable to go five seconds without saying something insensitive to another human.

You're like Michael from The Office, except worse because at least his character is written to be funny and a conscious effort is made by a team of writers to make him act that way.

You're an actual person and yet somehow manage to come off as offensive in most of your interactions with people here.---Just remember I will always love you, even as I tear your ****ing throat away.

I love how this is your response everytime someone get's bothered at your complete and utter inability to act like a civil human being.

Not really, since most of the time it's something religion-related and people just don't like it and claim it's "trolling", even though it is genuine.

Do you have social interaction problems Shado?

I love how this is your response everytime you get's bothered by my posts.

Because you seem completely unable to go five seconds without saying something insensitive to another human.

I didn't know being on TV was something horrible. Oops.

You're an actual person and yet somehow manage to come off as offensive in most of your interactions with people here.

Statistically speaking, no. But I see that you're mad now, so I'll just leave this topic alone before I anger you further. If I thought I really crossed the line here (which I admit, I have done in the past - no one's perfect) I'd say sorry, but I don't think I did so... bye?

From: Juiceman_Shado | #008
Statistically speaking, no. But I see that you're mad now, so I'll just leave this topic alone before I anger you further. If I thought I really crossed the line here (which I admit, I have done in the past - no one's perfect) I'd say sorry, but I don't think I did so... bye?
Ah I see, so I can say anything I want towards you and so long as I personally don't feel I've crossed a line (which would be hard to do considering what I think of you as a person), everything I say is just dandy and you have no right to get upset?

You really see nothing wrong with that train of thought?---Just remember I will always love you, even as I tear your ****ing throat away.

From: Juiceman_Shado | #003
Also, isn't your youngest sister still in high school? Can't wait to see her on MTV.
You win. So hard. So much.

---------------------------------------

I have a lot to say about this topic.

First, Shado is troll incarnate. OW seems to be too. They may not respect me, but I have so little respect for those two, it's not even funny.

Second, I two am the only atheist in the family, that I know of, and would love to tell my heavily indoctrinated cousins this and that. I would never just say "there isn't a god" so simply, but I wish I could let them know things aren't so frigging black and white. They are told there IS a god, 100%, which IS a lie, and I'm not allowed to say "Well no, there probably isn't a god."

It can be infuriating knowing that these kids are being lead down a road, being force fed garbage. I would hate if they turned out to be little pricks like Shado or OW. Unthinking drones. Trolls 4 Jesus.

But they aren't my kids. The only reason I still get to see them as much as I do is because I haven't opened my mouth. I mean the family even trusts me alone with the kids, which I do appreciate. (Just this Christmas I was the only supervisor while the kids all played Nintendo upstairs, 2 or 3 years ago this would have never been allowed, someone would always be "keeping an eye on me" so to speak, to ensure I didn't say anything.)

So yeah, it's a terrible situation. With no easy answer. Because every time I see those kids, I just want to tell them that not everyone agree's with them. They go to a private christian elementary school. All I can do is sit and observe, they are smart maybe they'll come around on their own. Or maybe in 50 years I'll still be the only non-believer.

As for me calling Shado out on his trolling, and OW to a lesser extent for getting off on Shado's trolling, I'm sure they will mark my post. I'm sure they marked Gimpys. I'm sure they'll deny both actions.

Anyway, good luck. I wish I could give you some answers, but I don't have any. I'm not sure there's much you could do even if you wanted to. Pulling them aside when mom and dad aren't looking and saying "Hey guess what, you're being brainwashed" doesn't fly. You would just be labeled as a "suppressive person" by the family and you'd stop getting invites to the holiday parties. Maybe, I'm pretty sure that I'd only get one shot. After that the kids would say something to someone, the parent's would say "who told you there was no god, that's silly?" then it'd get tracked back to me, and well, then things would get interesting. Things would go back to "watch that damn atheist like a friggin hawk" mode.

So yeah, I just have to relax and remember that I came out ok. Whatever happens, happens. The future remains a mystery.

I also want to point out to the mods that Shado and OW weren't even invited to this topic. This was an atheist only topic and they came in specifically to troll it. For what it's worth, I personally have no respect left for either of them. (Not that that was exactly a secret.) So yeah, I'm sure they will mark this post, and some mod will read it. what did they mark it as? Flaming? I'm not flaming at all, I'm stating facts. Shado DID troll Gimpy. This isn't ambiguous. And OW did come in and get off on the successful trolling, rubbing salt in the wound so to speak. Neither of them had any business in this topic. I'm also clearly not trolling. But I'm sure I'll be punished anyway.